S. Korean commandos storm hijacked vessel

8 Somali pirates killed, all 21 hostages rescued

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korean special forces launched a dramatic high-seas rescue Friday of 21 seamen hijacked by pirates last week aboard their South Korean-operated freighter in a top-secret operation that killed eight Somali abductors, officials here announced.

The skipper of the Samho Jewelry, a South Korean chemical carrier, was also shot in the abdomen during the melee in the Arabian Sea, but his wounds were not life-threatening, officials said. Five pirates were captured in the predawn military raid.

"Our special forces stormed the hijacked Samho Jewelry earlier today and freed all hostages," said Col. Lee Bung-woo, a spokesman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff. "During the operation, our forces killed some Somali pirates, and all of the hostages were confirmed alive."

The cargo ship's crew consisted of eight South Koreans, two Indonesians and 11 citizens from Myanmar, officials said.

The rescue off Africa was good news for South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who has been under fire for his perceived weak responses to two attacks by North Korea last year: a March torpedoing of a southern war ship that killed 46 crewmen and the North's November artillery shelling of a southern-controlled island that killed four people.

"We will not tolerate any behavior that threatens the lives and safety of our people in the future," Lee said in a brief televised statement, thanking unidentified countries for their help in the raid.

Military commandos boarded the Samho Jewelry under the cover of darkness, with teams moving systematically through the vessel, compartment by compartment, according to a news release from the South Korean Ministry of National Defense.

The captain was shot by a pirate as rescuers met with gunfire. "This operation demonstrated our government's strong will to never negotiate with pirates," South Korean Lt. Gen. Lee Seong-ho said.

Officials said the secret mission had been planned for a week. "Despite the difficult situation with limited information and pirates and hostages mixed in a group, with meticulous planning and practice, they minimized the damage and successfully carried out the plan," the government news release said of the rescuers.

The 11,500-ton Samho Jewelry, which was sailing from the United Arab Emirates to Sri Lanka when it was attacked, is the second vessel from South Korea-based Samho Shipping to be hijacked in the past several months.

Somali pirates in November freed the supertanker Samho Dream and its 24 crew members after seven months of captivity.

Piracy is common off Somalia, where ragtag crews armed with semiautomatic weapons in high-speed boats overcome lumbering tankers whose crews are loath to engage in gunplay.

Most companies settle the abductions by paying steep ransoms. Rescues are rare because of the risk to hostages, who are often kept below deck in safe rooms called citadels.

Although rare, such rescues do take place.

In April 2009, U.S. Navy snipers killed three pirates who had hijacked the Maersk Alabama, setting off with the American captain after abandoning the larger ship.